Spring Arena

Thursday, 28 June 2018

Nobel Laurate, Prof. Wole Soyinka has added his voice to the ongoing
carnage happening in some part of the country specifically the recent plateau
killings says submissions of President Buhari remain unjustifiable”

Recall that president Buhari saying “it is unjust for the public
to accuse him of being silent on killer herdsmen’

In a
statement he issued yesterday, titled, ‘On Demand: A Language Of
Non-Capitulation, Non-Appeasement,’ Soyinka said Buhari had yet to speak in the
language that these murdering herdsmen understand – simply, “that forceful
seizure of land will not be tolerated in any part of a federation under his
governance. That the temporary acquisition of weapons of mass elimination by
any bunch of psychopaths and anachronistic feudal mentality will not translate
into subjugation of a people and a savaging of their communities. That any such
gains are illusory and temporary and will be reversed.”

While
pointing out that it is belated, said, “many in this nation have had bitter
cause to conclude that governance had indeed expired, its elected head in a
trance. It is not that long ago when I demanded that this declaration of intent
– the reversal of land expropriation through mass murder – be made, and that the
triumphalist beneficiaries of such obscene occupation agenda be openly given a
deadline to self-evacuate, or be forcefully evicted.”

Commending
what he termed the first pertinent proclamation from the presidency since the
herdsmen national affliction began, the venerable writer also said, “a
commitment is now firmly in hand, but enforcement is all, so is the tempo of
enforcement.”

Soyinka
said a lot have taken place, and cannot be ignored, such as erasing of
communities from the national landscape, thousands of family mourning,
survivors scarred and traumatised beyond measure, famine looming in many areas,
even in those lodged in acknowledged bread baskets of the nation.

He urged
government to provide visible pragmatic measures to assist in bolstering
optimism of victims, enable them to feel that they have not been abandoned,
such as relocation of security commands to vulnerable zones, deployment of
Special Forces and attack helicopters. He also said these are mandatory
measures, and “their absence that constitute unpardonable negligence.”

He also
urged government to take into consideration, “long term propositions, such as
establishment of ranches, restriction of cattle movements, cultivation of fast
growth grasses and so on – they all indicate far-sighted planning. They deserve
approbation, but they are not exclusively remedial.”He also lent his voice on
the need for community police, saying, “Community policing is a basic right of
society and, where needed with whatever weaponry is available to them.”